Monday March 13

Tuesday March 14

Expect investors to focus on Antofagasta’s investment decisions when it unveils its full-year results. Peter Malin, of Peel Hunt, said management is closing in on “a go decision for the Los Pelambres expansion”. As such, he expects “serious investment” to start in 2018 after a decision is taken this year. In late January, the Chilean copper miner reported a strong production increase in the final quarter of 2016. However, in October, Antofagasta said full-year production would be at the lower end of its guidance.

The FTSE 100 firm has already flagged a material impairment to Alto Maipo, after it announced in January that it would sell its 40pc stake in the hydroelectric power project to partner AES Gener. Sales for the year are forecast to rise from $3.4bn to $3.6bn, while consensus forecasts point to pre-tax profits of $980m.

Wednesday March 15

Shares in Hikma Pharmaceuticals weakened ahead of its full-year results amid comments from US President Donald Trump. Last week, Mr Trump said he was working on a “new system” to increase competition in the drug industry and bring down pricing, causing shares in sector-wide to falter. In its wake, investors will be keen to focus on the FTSE 100 firm’s outlook statement for the year. Hikma has previously said it expects revenues in its generics unit to come in at around $800m.

Ahead of the results, Amy Walker, of Peel Hunt, says markets will focus on the progress in the group’s generics business following some delays to launches at the end of the second half of last year. The broker also flagged that FX movements are likely to have “a strong impact” on the branded business this year. Hikma is forecast to post full-year sales of $1.9bn and pre-tax profits of $301m.

Thursday March 16

Investors will focus their attention on how Sainsbury’s is dealing with higher import costs when it delivers its full-year results. Last week, its rival Morrisons warned more expensive imports were creating uncertainties for the group. Its comes as industry data from Kantar Worldpanel, published earlier this month, showed food inflation doubled in a month. It also revealed sales in Sainsbury’s increase by 0.3pc in the 12 weeks to February 26, compared to Tesco which enjoyed sales growth of 0.6pc during the same period.

In January, Sainsbury’s said sales at its grocery stores open over a year rose 0.1pc, excluding fuel, in the third quarter of the company’s financial year – its first positive like-for-like sales performance since the fourth quarter of its 2015-16 year.

Friday March 17

After reporting a 20pc drop in demand in the first half of their financial year, investors are hoping London builder Berkeley’s performance has improved in the third quarter. The high-end builder has been hurt by the property tax hike and the Brexit vote, which weighed on sentiment sector wide.

However, the mid-cap group posted pre-tax profit growth of 34pc to £392.7m in the six months to the end of October. Earlier this year, the Sunday Times reported that a fund manager at Schroder Investment Management had written to Berkeley asking it to consider an all-stock merger with its rival Bovis.